When I first entered the pastorate, the sage advice given was “get to know the church and don’t do anything major for the first year” or something like that. I understand the premise, but the longer I serve, the more I sense the urgency to “hit the ground running!”
Today we live in an unforgiving environment. That means that both seasoned leaders and those coming into new leadership roles need to hit the ground running, or at the very least, come up to speed quickly. This is simply a reality of our times.
In the past, in doing church work there were times you could “coast” – sometimes, you could “coast” for a long time. Lack of passion, preparation, ability, or leadership might not be noticed for a LONG time and – to be honest- these attributes did not cause irreparable harm to the church/organization. That is not so any longer. Today's church leaders, pastors, associational and denominational leaders need to be the forerunner of change. True, there is still a great deal of resistance to change but the consequences of failure to change are to the detriment of the church.
We are called to a noble task! We have to have a special love/overarching passion for the work God has called us to do in His church. We need to be so passionate that we prepare diligently for the work. As one SCUBA diver put it, “I have a special love for the sport. I have yet to be on a dive boat where, once we are over the dive spot, I am not the first diver in the water and the last to come aboard. Why? Because I am passionate about diving. PASSIONATE! I love every moment of it. I suit up long before anyone, sitting on the deck amidst the stares of the others who are in the galley eating. I wait for my chance to "dive in." On a recent dive at Anacapa island in California, I was in awe as I descended into a school of thousands of fish, I was right in the middle of them. Guess what? I was the only one on the boat that was able to see them because I was the first in”
You might say, how does this apply to one in ministry? Let me provide a few bullet points for comparison to the example above:
• We are CALLED to the work. Without a calling, there will be lackluster service for the work before us is impossible in our own strength,
• We have to have a special love/overarching passion for the work of the church/reaching the lost and making disciples.
o Love for God/Love for others: I have become convinced we have got to get this right! Of we do not love God supremely and demonstrate that love in our actions of love toward our fellowman, we will NOT accomplish the work with have been called to do.
o Without a passion (desire, hunger, thirst, craving, ache) for the church/the lost, our efforts will wane.
o Our passion leads to personal preparation, readiness, and eagerness to lead the way in doing the work God has called us to be/do as His church
• Notice the actions of the SCUBA diver and apply it to our role as pastors, church and denominational leaders:
o Be suited up (put on the whole armor)
o Be READY to jump in despite the lack of preparedness and readiness of others
o EXPERIENCE the fulfillment that comes from obedient service
I love the account of the diver jumping into the midst of the great school of fish. No one else experienced what He experienced as a result. If we want to lead the church to be what God has called us to be, we must be ready to lead the way as “go first” leaders! Many people may question – perhaps even become critical – and yes, it may be risky – but we must be committed to being obedient to the call of God to strengthen His church and impact the world around us fro Christ!
As a "go first" leader, you must be competent (capable, knowledgeable, experienced, skilled, proficient). If you are not the first one in (and the last one out) on every new endeavor, you are losing your authority/influence. I am not saying that you cannot delegate, but delegate the lesser things. The important ones are yours. Build the team, inspire them to act, and take the first step. Your passion for the new endeavors will be contagious and you will inspire those behind (the opposite would also be true).
I marvel at the many “leaders” that I speak to on a daily basis, and when I look behind them (figuratively), there is no one there. In fact, I’ve been there myself. However, you know as well as I, you are not a leader if nobody's following. In a recent article I was reading related to my work as an Associational Missionary, the following was stated: “Today's leader must not only have the ability to lead followers, he must lead leaders.”
If we want to strengthen the church and impact lostness, there is MUCH we need to do as those that lead (whether it be pastors, church leaders, or denominational workers). If you REALLY want to lead leaders, here are some of the things you will need to consider important.
• Time management skills
• Delegation and ownership
• Personal presentation
• The ability to drive values and objectives
• Complex decision making & problem solving
• Effective communication and consensus building
• Performance management and evaluation
• Dealing effectively with difficult conversations
• Ability to make the tough call
• Learning to tap into an individual’s creativity in times of great challenge
• Team building
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback that promotes growth
• Developing others
• Taking ownership of results (accountability)
• Self awareness and self-management
That last one’s a killer. In fact, for me personally the last 5 are difficult. Sometimes I am tempted to “o it alone,” do it all myself. That is not kingdom building leadership that is necessary for impact in today’s times! Let me just share some ideas about those 5 things briefly for you to ponder:
• Team building: As stated, sometimes I try to “do it myself.” Now, I look intently, trying to discern who around me has a similar passion and strive to mentor them. In the team of leaders around me, I disciple/mentor/assign tasks/encourage them as they go/foster activities that build relationship within the team, etc.
• Constructive feedback that promotes growth: I do not try to surround myself with “yes men (and women)” as I have seen within the leadership of many in the past. I need people that will be open and honest with me about the work we are doing together. At TRBA, I tell the staff and key leaders that I “expect them to be public cheerleaders for all we are doing and honest critics when we are in private.” When the TEAM makes a decision, we are to be in public support. However, if we need to make a change ANY team member should be able to voice concerns in discussions with other team members.
• Developing others: I have to remember, Jesus commanded that I “make disciples.” Though it takes time, I must make the time to develop others in their leadership. If I want to lead the association to strengthen the local church and have impact on reaching the lost in THIS generation, then I MUST devote time, prayer, energy, self into the hearts and lives of the people around me.
• Accountability: I marvel at many of my younger pastors for the level of accountability they place themselves under. Many in my generation did not do that in our leadership of the church. I have implemented the requirement for my team members to read a little book entitled QBQ (they really should read it OFTEN). I can tell when they have READ the book because it impacts decisions made, observations of the work to be done, how others are committed to the work, and they begin to take more responsibility for their actions as team leaders.
• Self awareness/self management: To be honest, this goes right along with accountability. We must be honest evaluators/critics of ourselves with the purpose of being a letter leader for the work God has called us to do in Him.
In the movie We Were Soldiers, Mel Gibson plays a role like that which I have spoken about here. He is a leader of leaders. In the movie, he makes it abundantly clear that the leader ALWAYS goes first. HOPEFULLY I can link a video to this soon.
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